Having His Back
by Vol lady
Summary: Jarrod's new client is Nick's first love, come back to Stockton out of the blue after leaving him six years earlier. Nick is none too happy when he finds out why she left him.
1. Chapter 1

Having his Back

1876

Chapter 1

Heading home at the end of a long day was nothing new to Heath, even if home being the Barkley mansion was relatively new, but heading there after a long day in town doing banking work and signing papers for Jarrod was. It seemed like there was just too much this time – too many papers, too many signatures, too much of Jarrod promising, "We're nearly through," and then there were more papers to sign.

"What's all this about?" he finally asked.

"Getting your name on all the proper accounts," Jarrod said. "Getting your will straightened out. Getting real property in your name. Remember, you're the one who wanted in on this."

"I didn't know we'd be using up a whole tree to take care of it," Heath said.

Jarrod laughed. "Now you know how my life goes."

"You're a braver man than I am," Heath said. And then, when he was finally done and got up to leave, he asked, "Are you heading home now too?"

"I wish I could," Jarrod said, "but I still have a couple hour's worth of work to finish up. Tell Mother to start dinner without me if I'm not there."

"Are you sure I've signed everything I need to sign?"

Jarrod smiled wearily and slapped him on the back. "You are officially part owner of the Barkley empire. You won't need to do any more signing for that until you're ready for the official adoption."

Heath was still nervous about that and had nixed it for now. It wasn't so much that it felt silly being adopted as an adult – which it did. It wasn't so much that it felt like a betrayal to his own mother – which it did. Maybe it was more like putting on paper a commitment he wasn't sure he was ready for – a commitment to change his name to Heath Barkley.

Jarrod understood Heath's unease, and Heath knew he understood it. "Don't worry about it," Jarrod said. "The ownership questions are now officially resolved, and as far as the rest of us are concerned, you are Heath Barkley, whether you use that name or not."

"I didn't sign the papers that way," Heath said.

"No, because I know you're not ready to legally be Heath Barkley yet. But your legal signature as of now is on all of these papers. You are part owner with the rest of us of all that Tom Barkley left us."

"I wonder how he'd feel about it," Heath mused, self-consciously.

Jarrod said, "I like to think I'm doing what he would have done. I'm the father figure around the place now. Maybe you haven't called me 'Pappy' yet, but that'll be sneaking out of your mouth before you know it." He saw the unease still resting in Heath's eyes. Jarrod put a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. "You're one of us, Heath, and he'd have acknowledged it, too. Not a doubt in my mind. And when you're ready for the paperwork to make your name official, too, I'll have it ready for you."

Heath had to smile a little. It was Jarrod who first acknowledged him as one of the family, Jarrod who had handed him that cigar at Sample's farm. In a way, that was all he needed to feel like a Barkley – so why was it so difficult to sign adoption papers?

And why did this little voice inside come out of his mouth and say out loud, "If I go through the official name change, am I gonna have to sign all these papers again?"

Jarrod inhaled as if to answer, but hesitated. "No. I'll cut down on the volume," he ended up saying with a reassuring smile and pat on the back for his newest brother.

Heath let everything go. This was what he wanted, after all – a heritage, a part of the Barkley name and empire. Things he knew he wanted and was willing to work for. Now he had them, officially.

And it was handy having a lawyer for a brother. He could do all these legal things and make sure Heath really was part of this Barkley empire, legally and for good. When it came to being sure Heath had what he was working for, Jarrod had his back. Heath said, "Thanks, Jarrod. I'll see you at home – whenever you get there."

Heath left Jarrod's office and left town. He was tired and didn't want to think about paper anymore, but he was astonished to get nearly all the way home on the Stockton road and find himself surrounded with – paper! Loose paper, all over the place, blowing in the wind, catching on rocks and trees and brush. Sheet after sheet after sheet of paper! _What the heck?_ he thought. _Did I fall asleep and this is some kind of nightmare?_

He tethered his horse and started grabbing what he could before the wind took it away. Not that he knew where he was going to put it once he'd gathered it, but he just kept grabbing. He could straighten it out and see what it all said later. He ended up stuffing it into his shirt and before too long there was nothing left to stuff. He could only watch the remainder blow away in the wind.

He buttoned his shirt carefully, up to his neck, so that none of the paper he now wore like an undershirt could get away. He climbed back onto his horse and soon was home. Nick and the men were coming in from the field, and as he dismounted he got lots of double takes from the men who saw him, now looking overweight and lumpy. Nick gave him a triple take.

"Don't tell me. Jarrod made you take copies of everything you signed and you didn't have any place to put it except in your shirt," Nick said, trying not to laugh.

"No, actually, I found all this blowing around on the road just outside the ranch," Heath said, patting his lumpy soft stomach. "I grabbed what I could in case it was important."

Ciego took Heath's horse, laughing a little. It made Nick laugh more. "Well, come on in the house and let's see what you've got," Nick said.

They went in together, happening on their mother and sister in the foyer. The woman turned to welcome them home, but suddenly Victoria stopped and stared at lumpy Heath. "Oh, my goodness!" she said. "What is – " She ran out of words and pointed.

Audra was more blunt. "What have you stuffed your shirt with?"

"Paper," Heath said. "I found it blowing along the road. Somebody's lost it and I thought it might be important."

"Come on," Nick said, giving Heath a slap on the back. "Let's take this into the library and start sorting it out. Then we can clean up for dinner."

"Yeah, I don't want to get any of this wet," Heath said.

As soon as they left the foyer, Victoria and Audra looked at each other – and laughed.

In the library, Nick said, "Let's just put it all out on the pool table and see if we can get a start on it."

Heath unloaded his shirt, and Nick just grabbed pieces of paper and flattened them out, one by one, not reading them yet. When he was almost through with getting the paper from his shirt to the pool table, Heath stopped to read one of the sheets of paper. "Hey, Nick, look at this."

Heath handed the paper to Nick, and he read it, and he looked up at Heath. "Well, well," he said. "Did you see anybody out there where you found this stuff?"

"Not a soul," Heath said. "Why do you think anybody would ride off and leave this behind?"

"I don't know, unless they were in a hurry."

"You don't think anybody would get robbed for this, do you?"

"I don't know," Nick repeated. "Maybe more likely somebody robbed somebody and this got left blowing in the wind. Maybe Jarrod can figure this out when he gets home."

"He said he'd be late."

"He'll get here sooner or later. If somebody did get robbed, he might have heard something in town."

Heath finished unloading his shirt, and soon he and Nick had the papers all straightened flat but not in any order that made sense. It was clear there were still pieces of paper missing, but what they had was intriguing. A mystery. An important one? It was difficult to tell. But Nick put the papers in a pile as Heath buttoned his shirt back up, and on top of the pile he put the paper that had drawn Heath's attention. Then they both looked at the pile.

The paper on top held only one sentence – a title. "Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant."

XXXXXXXX

Jarrod took one look and said, "This has got to be a fake."

Everyone was looking at the paper on the table. Each one of them had thumbed through the papers, all handwritten and purporting to be what the title page said it was, the memoirs of President Grant.

"It makes sense that he'd be writing them at some time, though," Victoria said.

Jarrod looked highly skeptical. "Even if he were, what would they be doing on the road outside Stockton, California, blowing away in the wind? No, it's far more likely somebody was trying to peddle these and lost them."

"Even if they're fake, if somebody was trying to peddle them, why would the let them get away?" Heath asked.

"Maybe someone was after them and they didn't have time to retrieve these," Audra offered.

Jarrod nodded. "Maybe some kind of confidence man is around here and he attracted attention he didn't want and had to run away from. He lost these along the way. For now I suggest we just keep these as a curiosity and I'll talk to the sheriff about them in the morning. You said there were more papers out there blowing away, Heath?"

"Yeah," Heath said.

"Maybe somebody picked them up and they're just as baffled as we are."

"If somebody is trying to sell them as real," Nick mused, "I wonder who it is?"

"A stranger most likely," Victoria said. "I can't imagine anybody in Stockton would try to defraud his neighbors with something like this."

"Never underestimate anybody, Mother," Jarrod said. "But for now, why don't we just put these away and feed me?"

Jarrod had arrived home late, after everyone else had finished dinner. Victoria took him by the hand and led him to the kitchen, leaving the other three Barkleys behind. They each kept thumbing through the papers.

"Wouldn't it be fascinating if they were real?" Audra mused out loud.

"Yeah, it would be," Nick said.

Heath said, "But Jarrod's right. Why would they be out here in California blowing around on the Stockton road when the President lives back east? Things might be a lot more fascinating if they're fake."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "I think that's a better thought."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Jarrod went to the sheriff's office before he went into the office in the morning, the "Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant" in hand. He didn't really expect to get answers on them today. He only wanted to bring them to the sheriff's attention in case they connected up with something he already knew about or something that was coming his way. But before he could even explain why he was there, Sheriff Harris looked at him and said, "Just the man I want to see."

"Me?" Jarrod asked. "I've got a mystery for you, too, but I'll hold it off. What do you need to see me about?"

"I have a prisoner I picked up last night, using bad money in a poker game at Harry's. She needs a lawyer."

"She?!" Jarrod gasped, astonished. "Harry had a woman in a card game?" And a nasty memory flew by.

"She's not your average woman," Sheriff Harris said.

"If she was using bad money, how is she going to pay me?" Jarrod asked.

"Just like a lawyer, asking about the fee before anything else," Sheriff Harris said. "She had good money on her, too. You want to meet her?"

Jarrod heaved a sigh. "It can't hurt, I guess. While I talk to her, why don't you take a look at these? It's your day for unusual problems."

Jarrod put the papers down on the sheriff's desk, and the sheriff let him into the cell block. Despite the nasty memory that had flown through his mind, Jarrod wasn't quite ready for the woman who was the sheriff's only guest.

"Mrs. Bernard," the sheriff said, "this is Jarrod Barkley. He's a lawyer. Why don't you two have a chat?"

The sheriff left and closed the cell block door behind him. Jarrod took his hat off, stared down at the woman sitting on the cot in the cell, and said, "How do you do, Mrs. Bernard?"

She shook her head. "Forget the formalities, Jarrod. I just need a lawyer."

Jarrod heaved a sigh. "Care to give me a reason I should represent you, Carol? And while we're at it, where does the 'Mrs. Bernard' come from?"

"I got married. I'm widowed," she said. Then she lost some of her smart-alec attitude and asked, "How's Nick?"

Jarrod was wondering how long it was going to take her to ask. "Nick is fine. I'm not sure he's too interested in seeing you, though."

The beautiful, raven-haired young woman let her gaze fall a bit. "I'm sure he's not. I suppose you'll tell him I'm here, though."

"I'll tell him," Jarrod said. "The question before us now, though, is do I represent you or not?"

She looked up at him. "I suppose I could talk you into it."

Jarrod's eyes went dark. "Carol, pull that out on me one more time and I will walk out the door for good and tell my entire family about what happened when you left Stockton the last time. I will not be blackmailed with what I did. Say one word about it, and I will drop your case, if I take it in the first place."

She believed him, or at least looked like she did. "Do you want to represent me?" she asked, and seemed sincere.

"Where did you get the bad money?" Jarrod asked.

"I sold something," she said. "I should have known the money was phony."

"Why?"

She smiled a little. "What I sold was phony too."

Jarrod hesitated just a moment before saying what he said next. "You didn't sell yourself, then."

She glared at him. "When Nick and I broke up, I moved to Reno. I eventually found a husband – a legitimate husband. We were married for six months before he fell off a ladder and was killed. I was faithful to him the whole time. I don't sell myself anymore."

"But you sold something else."

She hesitated. "Some fake documents."

Jarrod felt his neck crawl. "What fake documents?"

She shrugged. "Anybody with a brain would have known they were fake, but I sold some things to somebody who was hoping to sell them to a publisher."

"A publisher? What were they?"

"I sold him Robert E. Lee's memoirs."

Jarrod sighed. Now he understood everything. "And I'll bet you were peddling the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, too."

She looked a bit surprised and nodded.

"But you lost them," Jarrod said.

"You found them?"

"My brother Heath did, blowing all over the Stockton road. He retrieved some of them and the sheriff out there has them right now. How did you lose them?"

She sighed. "Stupidly. I was coming that way late yesterday afternoon, coming here. I stopped for a minute a bit south of where the turn off to your ranch is because I thought my saddlebags were coming loose. I tightened them but I did a poor job of it. When I got here, one of the bags was open. I had the Grant papers in there, and they were practically all gone. They blew right out and I never noticed. A few sheets were left. Your brother found the rest? I don't remember a brother named Heath."

"No reason you should. He found many of them, but don't plan on getting them back."

"They were a poor investment anyway. Lee's memoirs I could sell. Nobody would believe I really had Grant's."

"Well, it turns out you couldn't really sell Lee's either, didn't it?"

She chuckled a little. "So it turns out."

"Where did you get them in the first place?"

"I bought them off a little man in Merced about a month ago. He wrote them for fun. He had no idea I was going to try to resell them."

"Did you buy any others from him?"

"No."

"Why did you come back here?"

Carol sighed. "I could tell you it was for old time's sake, but the truth is Stockton was just on the road from Modesto to Sacramento. I had no intention of seeing Nick or any other Barkley when I stopped here. I just wanted a game of cards and a place to sleep."

"And where else are you wanted? What other kind of trouble have you been in?"

She eyed him, unhappily. "You're not gonna believe me if I tell you the truth."

"Try me."

"I'm not wanted anywhere. I haven't been pulling any other scams."

"How have you been earning money to live?"

"How do you think?" She was mad now.

He was just as determined. "I have to know these things before I can represent you, and I have to believe you're telling me the truth. You know how this works."

She softened. "I'm not wanted anywhere. I had some money from the sale of our place in Reno. I've been playing cards to keep the money coming. I haven't been clean as a whistle, but I haven't been hooking. A man here, a man there to take care of me. I met this little guy who wrote these memoirs and I bought them off him for a pittance. It didn't work out as well as I hoped."

Jarrod took a deep breath, trying to decide if he believed her or not, or if he was close enough to believing her that he could represent her. "Carol, did you know the money you were using in the card game was counterfeit?"

She began to laugh. "No, I didn't, and if I weren't in here, I'd laugh harder. Buying my fake Robert E. Lee memoirs with fake money. That's pretty priceless, don't you think?"

"If you could convince a jury you didn't know the money was counterfeit, you'd have a chance, but they're not gonna believe a word you say once you say you got it for selling Robert E. Lee's memoirs. It'll take the prosecutor all of ten seconds to prove that Robert E. Lee never wrote any memoirs. Who did you sell them to, anyway?"

"A man in Modesto."

"I'll need a name."

"I didn't get one. If you want him for passing me counterfeit money, you're out of luck. I don't know his name and I don't know where he lives. I just met him in a card game."

Jarrod heaved a big sigh. This was trouble, all the way around. He knew it and if he had a bit of sense, he'd walk out of here and tell her to get another lawyer. He almost did it, too, but then he thought about it. They had each other over a barrel about what happened the last time she was here. He had her, because if she told his family about it, he'd drop her case. She had him, because if he didn't take her case, she'd tell his family about it.

But then he looked at her again, a woman alone, in a jail cell and, if she was telling the truth, after losing her husband after only six months of marriage. Something told him she was telling the truth about her marriage, and he could feel for her about that. He decided maybe he could just dispose of this case fairly quickly without anybody telling anybody about what happened six years earlier.

She sighed. "Will you represent me, Jarrod?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

" _Will you represent me, Jarrod?"_

Jarrod considered. "Will you let me see if I can plea bargain you out of this?"

"I can't do time. You know what those women in San Quentin are likely to do to me."

Jarrod did know. "It wouldn't be San Quentin. Passing bad money is a federal offense. I'll represent you, if you let me try to get a decent deal for you. If you reject the best deal I can get, we'll have to call it quits, and you and I both keep quiet about the past. That's the deal between you and me."

She looked like she was thinking about it, at least. She finally said, "All right. I have some good money I can pay you with."

"So the sheriff said. But you realize, the federal prosecutor is in Sacramento, not here."

"So I have to sit here until you can talk to him?"

"I'm afraid so."

"How long will it take?"

"I don't know."

She actually started to cry. Jarrod thought that was phony, too, for a moment, but then he realized she might not be faking this. "You know," she said, "I thought when I married Jerome this kind of life was behind me. Six months we had. Only six months."

Jarrod felt for her, genuinely. "When did he die?"

"Not quite a year ago," she said.

It was hard not to sympathize with her, but he kept reminding himself of what she had been up to lately, everything about what happened between her and Nick six years earlier. He realized that being her attorney was going to leave him with all those complications. He hardened back into the lawyer – at least, almost. "Let me see if I can pull any strings, Carol."

She wiped her eyes. "I don't want to see Nick," she said quietly. "He won't want to see me."

"I'll have to tell him you're here. Let's see what I can do before we worry about Nick. I'll wire the federal prosecutor in Sacramento. I know him. He's the one I'd have to strike a deal with. But even getting through to him, and him getting something on this case – that's gonna take some time, maybe a few days."

"I understand," she said.

"And you won't be getting the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant back."

She actually chuckled a little about that. "Nobody was buying them anyway."

"And you're going to have to change your ways, or you're going to be right back in trouble. And I won't represent you again."

She nodded. "Whatever you say."

Jarrod left the cell block, and he had a couple words with Sheriff Harris about the memoirs he was holding. "These have to be fake," the sheriff said.

"I'm sure they are," Jarrod said. "I was just wondering if you knew anything about them."

The sheriff handed them back. "Not a thing."

Jarrod took them but didn't say anything about them. As far as he was concerned, the fact that they were connected to his client was a confidential matter. Instead, he said, "I'll be representing her. I'll wire the federal prosecutor in Sacramento and try to get this case started."

"All right," the sheriff said. "Good luck with that. I have a feeling this lady is no stranger to shady situations and she might be right back in jail somewhere even if you get her out of this charge."

Jarrod nodded. Sheriff Harris was new in the job, replacing Sheriff Lyman who was killed in the fight at the Sample place. Harris was not the sheriff when Nick was involved with Carol Keenan, now Carol Bernard, and he obviously did not know anything about the last time Carol was in Stockton. Jarrod was not inclined to fill him in. Explaining everything would have taken most of the morning, and Jarrod had a few things he had to get done.

First, he wired his Pinkerton contact in San Francisco. He had to know what they had or could get on Carol Keenan Bernard, because he never did trust her completely. If she was in deeper on something other than this charge of passing bad money, he had to know and fairly quickly. Next, he wired the federal prosecutor in Sacramento, a man named James Markle. They had gone to law school together and knew each other, but didn't stay in close touch. Their careers had taken them in different directions. Still, Jarrod hoped he could get Markle started on this case so they could dispose of it quickly. Jarrod didn't like leaving a woman in jail, even Carol.

He had a few other things to get off his desk, too, but it didn't take very long. He headed back to the ranch a lot earlier than he had planned to, deciding to ride out to where Nick was tending herd and to talk to him there. He wanted to tell Nick about Carol in broad daylight, and nowhere near the whiskey.

He had to tell Nick that Carol was back in Stockton. If he didn't tell him, Nick would lay him out of the floor for that, when he found out. And if Nick found out everything that happened the last time Carol was here - Jarrod was beginning to think there was no way he was going to avoid his younger brother's considerable temper in this. He may as well just get used to the idea he was going to sport a nasty bruise before all this was over. By the time he found the herd and spotted Nick and Heath with it, he was grumbling, telling himself he was an idiot for taking the case, wondering if he should just turn around, go back to town and resign. If he were being smart, he'd do that.

But then he knew why he didn't do it. It wasn't only because of the way it all ended when Carol left town the last time and what she had on him. It was because she had lost a husband she loved after only a brief marriage. It was because she was roaming the countryside alone, playing poker and selling fake documents – and maybe more, despite what she said – just to get by. Despite everything that happened before, despite everything that was happening now, Carol was a woman alone who needed legal help.

And Jarrod knew he had enough ego to believe he could juggle it all and make this come out right, even if he had to take a punch or two from his brother in the meantime.

Nick and Heath both came riding toward him. Jarrod never appeared out on the range in a business suit unless something urgent had happened. "What's up?" Nick asked right away.

"We need to talk," Jarrod said. It was hard to be heard above the lowing of the cattle. Jarrod nodded toward the chuck wagon and rode over to it.

Nick and Heath met him there, all of them dismounting. "Is something wrong?" Nick asked right away.

Jarrod gave a glance at Heath, who hadn't been around when Carol was last here and probably knew nothing about her, but he said to Nick, "The person who lost the stuff Heath found is in jail in Stockton on a charge of passing bad money."

"Yeah?" Nick said. "So?"

"It's Carol Keenan, Nick."

Nick straightened up like he was ready to throw a punch just at the mention of her name.

Jarrod stood his ground. "She asked me to represent her."

Nick looked like he was winding up, but still didn't throw the punch. "Do I have to ask what you said?"

Jarrod still stood his ground. "Probably not."

Nick turned, got back on his horse and rode back to work.

Heath looked confused, interested. "Who's this Carol Keenan?"

"I think Nick better tell you that, Heath," Jarrod said. "Let's just say she's not one of Nick's favorite people."

"Jarrod, if it's something that really gets to Nick, why in the world did you take the case?"

"That's part of a long story. I'll talk to the family more about it tonight."

Heath whistled. "Jarrod, I don't know much about this, but I can tell you're asking for a fist in your face. You shouldn't have taken her case."

"Maybe not," Jarrod said. "At any rate, I want Nick to have first crack at talking to you. I'll talk to everyone tonight about it, and we'll see where it goes. If he wants to slug me, I'll probably just have to let him."

Heath made an unhappy face, then climbed back on his horse and rode off to where Nick had gone. Jarrod remounted too and headed for home.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Nick watched as Jarrod left and Heath rode up beside him. Heath got straight to the point with Nick. "Jarrod said to ask you about this Carol Keenan."

Nick watched Jarrod until he disappeared over the ridge. "Did he now?"

"What's it about?"

Nick still didn't look Heath's way. "It's about a woman I thought I loved and I thought loved me, but I was wrong."

 _Nothing new about that,_ Heath thought. There had to be more. "What else?"

Nick finally turned his attention to his younger brother, and the tenseness left his shoulders. He just shook his head. "I can't explain it out here. Maybe we just best wait until we get home and we hear what all Jarrod has in mind."

With that, Nick turned his horse and rode away. Heath knew he wasn't going to get one iota of information more out of him, and he knew this evening's get-together before dinner was not going to be peaceful. He thought – not for the first time – that this Barkley family was a lot more turbulent than he had bargained for, but he was in it now. The papers were signed, and even if he had yet to change his name legally, all the rest of it was legal and binding on him, including being part of conversations he'd rather not be involved in. But that's what being part of a family was – the good and the bad. He knew it when he decided it was what he wanted. He didn't plan to change his mind now.

XXXXXXX

Jarrod got to the house and came in the front door carrying the Grant memoirs in his portfolio. He left it and his hat on the table in the foyer and started to go looking for his mother and sister, but Victoria appeared from the library before he go very far.

"Did you find out anything?" she asked.

He knew she meant about the memoirs. Jarrod nodded. "Yes. Is Audra around?"

"No, she's gone over to the Marshall place to take them some preserves and fresh apples," Victoria said. Then she saw how unhappy Jarrod looked. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Jarrod took his mother by the elbow and led her into the parlor. "I've picked up a new client, and yes, she is involved with the papers Heath found and she's in jail on yet another charge."

"What charge?" Victoria asked. Jarrod had steered her to the settee, but she declined to sit down.

"Passing bad money," Jarrod said. "She says she didn't know it was bad and I believe her, so I agreed to represent her as far as trying to get her a plea bargain is concerned, but I told her that would be as far as I would go. I won't represent her if she has to go to trial."

"Why not?" Victoria asked, knowing that was an unusual position for Jarrod to take. "Who is she?"

Jarrod took a deep breath and said, "Carol Keenan."

"Oh, my heavens," Victoria said and slumped down onto the settee.

Jarrod sat down beside her and took her hand. "I know what you're going to ask me."

"Yes, why on earth did you take her case at all?" Victoria asked. "After what happened with Nick, how could you get within fifty feet of that woman?"

Jarrod couldn't explain the whole thing. He had never told anyone about what happened when Carol left the last time because he never expected to see the woman again. But now here she was, and Jarrod needed to give some explanation as to why he was representing her. He was just glad he had his reasons that didn't include what she might reveal to them about her last visit. "She's a woman alone and in jail," he said. "She has a viable defense against the charge. She says she did have a conventional life for a while, even married, but her husband died in an accident only six months after they were married. She's lost, Mother."

"That doesn't mean you have to be the one to find her," Victoria said.

"Which is why I told her I would only take this as far as trying to get her a good plea deal," Jarrod said. "Let's talk about it this evening. Let me talk to Nick about it first. Maybe there's a way – "

"Jarrod," Victoria said, very seriously, "do I need to remind you what happened to Nick because of her?"

"No, you don't need to remind me," Jarrod said. "He was pretty broken up and it took a while to get him back together. But that was six years ago, Mother. I've wired Pinkerton for some help with this. Regardless, I think she is innocent of knowingly passing any bad money."

"And 'The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant'? What is that about?"

"I know, that's not something that sounds all that innocent – she was trying to get some sucker to believe they were real and buy them from her."

"Jarrod, you are out of your mind to be representing that woman. You should turn her down."

Jarrod got up. He wished he could explain everything about why he was representing Carol Keenan Bernard, but he knew it would be a giant can of worms he'd be opening if he told her what happened the last time she was here, and he knew it would hurt the hell out of Nick. "I can't do it, Mother," he just said. "I really believe she's innocent of the charge, and there's another reason, but I can't explain it to you, not yet. Please, just trust me."

Victoria took a very deep breath. "When you decided to expand your law practice and take clients outside the family, we made it clear that your outside practice would not hinder or harm the family in any way."

Jarrod nodded. "And I've already let that happen more than once, I know. It was an unrealistic expectation, Mother, and we've talked about it when my outside work has impinged on the family before. We decided we would handle it."

"This is different," Victoria said. "It's one thing when a defendant threatens you or takes a shot at you. It's quite another when you take on a client who has a personal history with the family."

Jarrod sighed. They had definitely reached an impasse. "Let me talk it over with the whole family here this evening."

"Will you agree to abide by what we say?"

Jarrod hesitated. "I can't resign from her case, Mother. I'm hoping you'll all understand once we talk."

"You might just be asking too much, Jarrod," Victoria said. "And if all the rest of us are against you taking this case and you still take it – "

She stopped there. Jarrod understood, and he nodded. "I know. I've done it before and you feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

"That's exactly right," Victoria said.

Jarrod couldn't bear the expression on her face. The last time he took a case the family didn't want him to take was Corby Kyles's case, and that ended up a disaster. A disaster they forgave him for. If he did it again, there might not be any forgiveness this time. But if Carol told them what he had done the last time she was here, that might be tough to forgive too. He was stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

Now he knew it was all going to be up to Nick. The family would do whatever Nick wanted. Jarrod had no idea what that was going to be, but he hoped he could do some fancy talking when the whole family was together, and he hoped he would at least retain some of his teeth once Nick was through with him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Audra was the first to come in the door later that afternoon, and the first to see that her mother and her oldest brother were at odds with each other. Sometimes when she was particularly angry with someone, Victoria would simply keep quiet, and Jarrod had something of the same inclination. Their silence spoke volumes to Audra right away. She chatted away to both of them for a minute or so, then gave up. They would talk to her, but only in one or two word phrases, and they would not talk to each other.

Heath came in next. Audra met him at the door and warned him. "I don't know why, but they're not speaking to each other."

Heath said, "I think I know why."

Leaving his hat and gloves on the table in the foyer, Heath headed straight for the refreshment table and poured himself a glass of whiskey. As he poured, he said simply, "Nick's gone to town."

Jarrod jumped up out of his thinking chair. "To town?"

Heath nodded. "He said he wants to see her before he talks to you again."

"See who?" Audra asked.

"Carol Keenan."

"Carol Keenan?" Audra said, now just as unhappy. "She's back in Stockton?"

Heath nodded.

Jarrod headed for the door, but Heath grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. Jarrod's eyes burned into him. "Let go of me, Heath."

"Jarrod, I think you best let him be," Heath said. "He's been stewing all afternoon and he's ready to knock your teeth out."

"Heath – " Jarrod growled.

"And he's got more than half an hour's head start on you. He's probably already there, or close to it."

Jarrod still glared.

Heath said, "Look, I'm new at heading off fights between the two of you, so if I make mistakes, I'm sorry, but whoever this Carol Keenan is or was, she's somebody Nick has to talk to before he's ever gonna talk to you about her. I'd just let him do it if I was you."

Jarrod eased a little.

"Besides," Heath went on. "Head out now and you're just gonna meet him coming home on the road and that's where he'll leave your teeth."

"Sit down, Jarrod," Victoria said.

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Audra asked.

Jarrod did not sit down, but he said, "She was arrested for passing bad money in a poker game last night. I talked to her this morning, and I've agreed to represent her."

Audra's face screwed up and her mouth flew open. "You can't be serious!"

"She says she didn't know the money was bad," Jarrod went on. "She says she got it from selling Robert E. Lee's memoirs to somebody."

"And Robert E. Lee didn't write any memoirs," Victoria added.

"So she can't be trusted now any more than she was before!" Audra blurted.

"Before was before, Audra," Jarrod said. "Heath, those Grant papers you found were hers, too. She says they blew out of her saddlebags on the way to Stockton yesterday. But I believe her when she says she didn't know the money was bad, and that's the charge against her."

"What about fraud?!" Audra yelled.

"She passed off phony memoirs and got phony money in return," Jarrod said. "She got nothing of value."

"Still, Jarrod, to represent her – "

"She's got a viable defense to the only charge against her," Jarrod said. "I told her I'd represent her so far as to get her a plea bargain, but I won't go to trial with her if she doesn't agree to one."

Everyone still looked angry, if not horrified.

Jarrod heaved a sigh. "She says she married, but her husband was killed falling off a ladder about a year ago. They were only married for six months. She's been trying to make her way on savings and card games."

"And you believe her," Audra said, incredulous. "Jarrod, she just up and left Nick!"

"I'll see what Pinkerton has to say," Jarrod said.

"Have you gone mad?" Audra asked.

"Maybe," Jarrod mumbled to himself and went back for more scotch. He seriously considered telling them what he and Carol were holding over each other but he knew he couldn't do that, not without telling Nick first.

Heath had been listening to all of this, mostly listening to how his new family interacted with each other when a big disagreement arose. He had watched it before but it was largely about him, and that was all over now. This promised to be even more explosive, especially since he was pretty sure Jarrod was still hiding something. He wasn't sure why he knew – body language, the sound of his voice, something – and he didn't know if it was about the present or the past, but there was something. Heath just took it all in for now. He wasn't going to pipe in just yet.

Jarrod said, "I do feel for the woman. She tried to make a good life for herself, but fate took it away. She fell back on the only things she knew how to do, and now she's roaming the countryside, alone, on the edge of being broke all the time, and now in jail on a charge she's probably innocent of. I'm trying to verify what she's told me. I'm doing what I think is the right thing to do."

Audra made an unhappy face. "I can't imagine that Nick would be all right with you representing her."

"Maybe not," Jarrod repeated and drank a little of the scotch he had just poured for himself. "But I guess we won't know exactly how he feels until he gets home, will we?"

XXXXXXX

Nick walked into the sheriff's office, feeling a mixture of angry and uncomfortable about what he was about to do. Sheriff Harris looked up from paperwork he was doing at his desk. "Nick! I didn't expect to see you here."

Nick said, "Steve. Can I see Jarrod's client?"

The sheriff said, "Sure," and got up and opened the cellblock door.

Nick went in and saw her there, alone. She was sitting on the cot, looking up to see who was coming in. Her eyes went wide, and as the sheriff went out, she got up and got as far away from Nick as the cell would allow.

Nick noticed what she was doing. "Well," he said. "All the way over here I kept trying to compose what I was gonna say to you, but now that I'm here, I don't know what to say."

Carol gave him a glance, but only a glance. "Neither do I." There was silence between them before she looked up at him, staring at her, and she said, "Why did you come here?"

"To see you," Nick said. "I thought maybe it was because you left me without a word six years ago, and I wanted to get the last one in. But now, that doesn't seem all that important."

"I knew Jarrod would talk to you, but I didn't think he'd do it this fast," Carol said. She wondered if Jarrod had told him everything, but he didn't look quite angry enough for her to think that he had.

"He doesn't keep things from me."

She looked hard at him. She almost said yes, he does, but she didn't say it. Instead, she said, "What do you want to say to me?"

"I don't know," Nick said. "I've really hated you all these years, Carol. As much as I loved you then, I've hated you since. And now, it all just seems so pathetic."

"Pathetic?" she said with a lot of scorn. "You think I'm pathetic?"

"Compared to who the girl I thought I was in love with was, yes," Nick said.

She shook her head. "You never really knew me, Nick."

"Because you didn't want me to."

She stayed standing there, staring at him. "Why don't you say what you really want to say? You hate me. You'd like to get your hands around my throat because I really hurt you when I left you."

"Why did you leave?" Nick asked.

She fumbled then. She couldn't say the truth. She just said, "We weren't meant to be together, Nick. You didn't really know me."

"Why didn't you let me know you?"

She shook her head. "You wouldn't have liked what you saw."

He just stared at her.

"What do you want me to say, Nick?" she said. "Do you want me to say I did love you and I left because I thought I wasn't worthy of you? All right, there it is. That's why I left."

"No, it isn't," Nick said. "I may not have known a lie when I heard it when I was 22, but I know one now."

"All right then. I didn't love you. I left because I could tell you were going to ask me to marry you and I didn't want that. I didn't want you. Now, just go."

She turned her back on him. He looked to see if she had any tears in her, but she didn't. Still, Nick kept looking, because he didn't believe what she had just said either. "You were a much better liar then than you are now," he said.

She turned to face him again, farther away from him now. "Nick, the past is the past. There's no point in dredging it up. I thought I loved you, but when I realized you were going to ask me to marry you, I knew I didn't love you. There's no more to it than that."

Nick let that sit for a moment, and then he said, "Why don't you fire Jarrod?"

"Why? Because he's a good lawyer and he can get me off fast and clean, that's why. He'll take care of that and I'll be on my way out of this town."

"Why did you come to Stockton now in the first place?"

"Because it's between Modesto and Sacramento."

"So are a lot of other towns."

"Nick, will you just let things go? I never intended to see you again. I intended to be in here for one night and then out again. I didn't know the money I passed was bad. I sure never intended to be in jail. And I never even intended for Jarrod to be my lawyer. He just happened to be the one the sheriff brought in here."

"Then fire him," Nick said.

"I can't," she said. "I need him. He'll get me off and I'll be gone. Now for God's sake, Nick, let it all be dead in the past where it belongs and get out of here."

She turned her back again, and this time, Nick did what she asked. He hesitated a bit, wondered if he should actually say good-bye, but then he didn't say it. He just left.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Nick left the sheriff's office without saying much to the sheriff. Once outside, he stopped. He didn't know where he wanted to go. Talking to Carol had just solidified what he never wanted to believe – that she never did love him. Then why did she act like she did? Or did she love him once and stop? Or did it really make any difference?

He glanced up at Harry's saloon and remembered that was where he first met her. Despite everything, it still made him smile – to think he met the first girl he really fell in love with in a poker game in Harry's saloon…..

 _She came in all raven-haired, young and beautiful, and downright confident. She'd have to be to march into a saloon and straight up to one of the poker tables that had an opening. Nick noticed her right away, and she saw him looking at her. She came over, holding her reticule in a relaxed, comfortable way. "May I join you?" she asked._

 _The other men looked up at her. "Lady, this is a serious game."_

 _She pulled out a wad of money from her reticule and set it down on the table. "I'm a serious girl," she said and sat down._

 _Nick found himself smiling like a fool – and it didn't fade until she started winning his money. Maybe she was a girl. Maybe she was young and pretty and should have been in finishing school rather than in a saloon, but she knew how to play poker, and Nick couldn't find a tell on her to save his life. In less than an hour, she had raked in practically all of his money and some substantial winnings from the other men at the table, too. They all started to get up._

" _Are we finished, gentlemen?" she asked._

" _You have all the money," one of the other men said as they walked away._

 _Nick had been smoking a cigar. Despite the fact that he had only three dollars left, he leaned back happily in his chair and puffed. He said, "You're no stranger to a poker table."_

 _She smiled and began to get her winnings together. "A girl has to make a living somehow," she said, put the money back into a bigger wad and put it into her reticule._

" _What's your name?" Nick asked._

" _Who's asking?" she asked._

" _Nick Barkley," he said._

" _Carol Keenan," she said._

" _You're not from around here," he said._

" _Passing through on my way to Sacramento," she said. "The train broke down, so I came over here. The hotel is full with stranded passengers. Do you know a good boarding house?"_

" _I do," Nick said. "Mrs. Lambert's, next street over. I'll walk you there if you like."_

 _She abruptly pulled a derringer out of her reticule. "You don't plan to rob me, do you?"_

 _Nick straightened, but then smiled again. "Not now."_

 _And that was the way he had met Carol Keenan. She could have taken the train to Sacramento the next day, but Nick came back into town and took her to lunch instead. "I asked around about you," she said over coffee, waiting for their order to arrive. "You own a big spread here."_

" _My family does," Nick said. "I run it."_

" _Awfully young for that, aren't you?"_

" _I ran it with my father since the end of the war, but he was killed earlier this year, so I'm running it now," Nick said._

" _I'm sorry to hear about your father," Carol said, and seemed to mean it. "I lost my parents in a flu epidemic in Fresno a couple years ago."_

" _You've been on your own ever since?"_

" _Pretty much. I had a couple marriage proposals, but I was never keen on being the wife of a banker or a tradesman, so I turned them down. A girl can only turn down so many proposals before the boys quit asking."_

" _Where did you learn to play poker?"_

 _She laughed. "I had two brothers. They taught me."_

" _Are they the only family you have left?"_

" _I don't even have them left now. They both died in a wagon accident three years ago – they were bringing supplies home from the store when a storm hit and the wagon wrecked. One was caught under it – the other was thrown clear but hit his head on a rock. Sometimes I think that's why my parents didn't survive the flu epidemic. They just didn't have the strength to go on after my brothers died."_

" _How have you been making it through life? How have you earned your living?" Nick realized too late it was a poor question to ask._

" _Cards," she said. "I'm not the girl next door, Nick."_

After what had happened six years earlier, and after his conversation with Carol just now, Nick wondered if any of that story was true. If her love wasn't real, she could have lied about anything. Anything at all.

Nick started over to the saloon, and once inside, he remembered that card game again. He stopped inside the door and stared at that table for a moment. Then he remembered other card games, and he remembered how he was becoming smitten. He brought her home one evening and she began to teach him and his brothers some card tricks she knew. Eugene was just a little kid then and he thought she was the best thing going. She was fun and beautiful. Jarrod – funny, but now as Nick thought about it, Jarrod seemed awfully quiet that night, like he was sizing her up. And maybe he was. Maybe he could see that his middle brother was beginning to fall for this girl. Falling too fast to suit him, probably.

"Nick, are you coming in, or are you just gonna think about it?" Harry, behind the bar, asked.

Nick chuckled a little self-consciously and came over to the bar. "Sorry, Harry, just got lost in my head there for a minute."

"What'll it be?" Harry asked.

"Whiskey," Nick said.

Harry poured him one. "This is a funny hour for you to be in town. Too late for supplies, too early to visit me."

"Ah, I was over at the jail," Nick said and sipped his whiskey.

"Oh," Harry said. "Carol Keenan."

"Yeah," Nick said quietly.

"She was in here last night," Harry said. "Shocked the heck out of me, and then she passed that bad money." Harry shook his head.

"Jarrod's gonna defend her," Nick said, still not liking it.

"I figured he would."

"Really?" Nick asked. "I thought he'd avoid her like the plague."

"Yeah, well – she was yelling she didn't know the money was counterfeit when they took her out of here," Harry said. "Jarrod probably believes her."

"I'm surprised he'd believe her about anything, the way she just up and left six years ago. And I don't think he was too keen on me falling in love with a poker playing woman in the first place. He didn't trust her then. I shouldn't have either."

"Six years is a long time, Nick. Maybe she didn't know the money was counterfeit."

"I still wish Jarrod wasn't defending her."

Harry understood. "She burned you bad, I know, but maybe it was better in the long run. She wasn't the girl for you."

Nick heard what Harry said – and he heard the subtext, too. "Why? Why do you say that?"

"Well, she just – I don't know," Harry flubbered. "She just didn't seem like the type of girl who'd be good for you."

Now Nick was feeling an uncomfortable itch. "Why not?"

Harry realized he'd said too much. "Nothing, Nick. Nothing."

"Now, don't go telling me it's nothing. You didn't just make that up. You know something I don't know. Cough it up."

Harry grew stern, but calm. "Nick, I'm a bartender. A bartender is like a priest. We hear all sorts of things that we aren't going to repeat."

"You heard something? Back then?"

Harry looked uncomfortable. "Like I said, Nick. I'm a priest."

"You don't take any oath."

"I have my rules I live by. If you want to know anything more, you talk to Carol some more or you talk to Jarrod."

Now Nick nearly flipped. "Jarrod? What does Jarrod have to do with this?"

Harry raised his hands in surrender. "Nick, I'm just saying. I'm not gonna tell you any more. You go to Carol or to Jarrod if you wanna know anything else."

Nick knew Carol had said all she was going to say, and now so had Harry. That left Jarrod – but what could Jarrod know about what happened six years ago? He wasn't involved. Nick hadn't even talked to him about Carol except to say he was going to ask her to marry him. What would Jarrod have to do with the reasons Carol left?

And then Nick remembered how Jarrod seemed to be sizing her up the first time they met, over card tricks at the house. He didn't like what else he was thinking one bit.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Nick stormed into the house, yelling. "Jarrod! Jarrod!"

They were used to Nick's yelling and were expecting it this time, too, but only Heath was in the foyer hearing it. He had been heading for the library but turned right around when he heard Nick's voice. "What's the problem, Nick? What are you hollering about?" Heath asked.

"Where's Jarrod?" Nick asked.

Heath could tell he was boiling over. He expected Nick to come home mad after talking to Carol, but not this mad. "He's in the library. What's wrong?"

"Something I'm gonna get straightened out," Nick said. "Jarrod! Get out here!"

"Did you talk to Carol?" Heath asked.

"Yeah, I talked to Carol, and I talked to Harry, too, and I got an earful but not enough. Just some 'go talk to Jarrod.' Jarrod!"

Jarrod finally came in from the library. "I hear you, Nick. What do you want?"

"Outside!" Nick said and stormed toward the front door.

Jarrod looked at Heath, and Heath recognized that "caught" look. Nick had found out something in town, something that told him that Jarrod had something to do with Carol, something Nick didn't know about. Heath stood there for a moment, wondering if he should go out after them.

"No, stay here," Victoria's voice came as if she knew what he was thinking. She and Audra were coming into the foyer from the kitchen. "Whatever it is, they'll have to iron it out themselves."

"Is this some kind of regular occurrence?" Heath asked.

"No, but it does happen a few times a year," Victoria said.

"I think it's about Carol Keenan," Heath said.

"I'm sure it is," Victoria said. "We'll find out all about it before too long."

Heath sighed and let it go – but he sure was curious about where this was going to go after Nick and Jarrod had "discussed" things outside.

XXXXXX

Nick marched to the corral, and Jarrod followed him. Nick marched in circles then, angry circles like a bull trying to decide whether to charge. Jarrod took a spot next to the fence, feeling pretty certain at some point he was going to need it to lean on. Jarrod didn't say anything. He just waited for Nick to stop pacing and start talking.

Nick finally stopped and glared at him. "I talked to Carol, and then I talked to Harry, and what I figured out was that Carol leaving six years ago had something to do with you. I don't know how, but somehow it was your doing, and I want to know what it was. What did you do to make her leave me?"

"I didn't really make her leave you, Nick," Jarrod said after thinking for a moment.

"Don't lie to me, Jarrod!" Nick yelled.

"I didn't make her leave you in the sense that she stopped loving you," Jarrod clarified. "She never loved you, Nick."

Nick hauled off and hit him.

Jarrod was grateful for the fence rails behind him. He wiped blood from his mouth, but he did not fall down. "You want truth? I'll give you truth," Jarrod said. "She never loved you. For Carol, it was always money. Everything she ever did was for money and when she pretended to love you it was to get you to marry her so she could have money."

Nick began to raise his fist again.

Before Nick could hit him again, Jarrod said, "So I gave her the money. I gave her a thousand dollars to leave and get out of your life for good, and she took it and she left."

Nick swung harder this time than the first time, catching Jarrod just above the left eye. Jarrod went down like a sack of grain falling off a wagon, and for a few moments he sat there in the dirt. He had no intentions of hitting back.

Jarrod eventually dragged himself up off the ground, wiping the blood off his split lip with the back of his hand. Nick loomed in front of him, ready to hit him again, but Jarrod said, "Nick, if she loved you and wanted to marry you, why would she have taken the money and left?"

Nick stopped.

"If she'd stayed, she'd have had a part of everything, but she'd have had to fight for it," Jarrod went on. "Her choice was between fighting to marry you or taking an easy thousand dollars from me to leave. She took the thousand dollars."

Nick's arms fell to his sides, and he stood staring at his older brother. Jarrod fell against the fence, needing the support, still wiping blood and now feeling some swelling starting up at his eye.

Jarrod said, "Father had just died. You were 22 years old and in charge of one of the largest ranches in central California. You were struggling with it all, and so was I."

That caught Nick's attention.

"I wasn't sure of my place after Father's death either," Jarrod went on. "I only knew I was the oldest and I had to carry some of the load of taking care of the family so Mother didn't have to. Carol was playing you like a violin, Nick. I had to do something. I told her I'd fight her tooth and nail if she tried to stay with you, or I'd give her a thousand dollars to leave. She took the quick and easy money."

Nick turned and walked away, back into the house, leaving his older brother there to bleed. Nick was confused, even more than he was angry now. Some of what Jarrod had said made sense. And it shook Nick that she took the thousand dollars rather than stay and fight for him. It was beginning to dawn on him that the money meant more to her than he did, but he didn't want it to dawn. Because all he was worth to her was a thousand dollars.

Nick went straight to the library when he got into the house, not even looking at his mother or sister or brother in the living room. They looked at each other, and then Victoria looked at Heath with that plea in her eyes. Heath knew what she wanted right away. _Go talk to Nick._

Heath went to the library and found Nick into the whiskey there. He wasn't sure whether to expect a screaming argument out of him or not, but what he got was a man nursing a glass of whiskey, looking vacant, looking like he was trying to think and he didn't like what he was thinking about.

"Where's Jarrod?" Heath asked.

"Outside," Nick said.

"Did you hit him?" Heath asked.

"Twice," Nick said.

"Did it help?"

Nick hesitated before he said, "I don't know."

"Did he tell you what happened between him and Carol when she was here last?"

Nick swallowed some more whiskey. "Yeah."

"What'd he say?"

"He gave her money," Nick said, angry. "He offered her a thousand dollars to just leave, and she took it and left. Not a word to me from her, not a word to me from him. Just a little private arrangement between the two of them and she was gone."

Heath sighed. "Yeah," he said. "I thought it might be something like that."

Nick turned on him. "Why?! Why would you think that?!"

Heath had to raise his voice now, too. "Heck, Nick, when I first came here and announced myself, he offered me money to leave too, remember? But I didn't take it. I didn't take it because I'd already made up my mind that I wanted to be part of this empire and I was ready to be part of this family to do it."

"What's your point?"

"Carol took the money and left. She wasn't ready to be part of this family. She wanted your money, but she wasn't ready to make the commitment to you."

Nick knew that. Deep inside, where it hurt the most, it was the truth that was dawning on him even if he didn't want it to. But – "How did Jarrod know that and I didn't?"

"Because you were stupid in love and he wasn't! And didn't you tell me he was in army intelligence during the war? And he was assistant district attorney? Get a brain, Nick! By the time Carol Keenan got here, he'd already spent a big chunk of his life with spies and crooks and killers and con artists. He learned to spot somebody who wasn't being straight long before Carol, and you never did. You didn't have the same life he had."

Dear God, it made sense. Nick understood all at once. Jarrod really had been looking out for him. Jarrod had read Carol right when he himself had read her all wrong. Jarrod had paid her off and kept it to himself all these years, all of it to protect him. "Oh, geez," he moaned and put the glass down on the refreshment table with a thunk.

Once inside the house, Jarrod saw Heath disappearing toward the library, and he figured that was where Nick went. His mother and sister were standing in the foyer, looking shocked. When they saw the state of his face, they grabbed him and steered him toward the settee in the parlor.

"I'm all right," Jarrod said, sitting down.

"I'll get some ice," Audra said and hurried to the kitchen.

"What happened?" Victoria asked.

"I told him the truth," Jarrod said. "He didn't take it well."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"And what is the truth?" Victoria asked.

Jarrod sucked in his breath. Might as well tell her right now. "When Carol left without a word six years ago, it was because I paid her to."

Victoria stiffened. "What?"

"I offered her a thousand dollars to just leave, get out of Nick's life," Jarrod said. "She took it."

"Who gave you the right to do that?" Victoria was livid.

"Nobody gave me the right! I just took it!" Jarrod said, getting angry himself, especially now that his lip was really beginning to hurt and his eye was swelling shut. "He was 22 years old and she never loved him. She was just out to get married and then dump him for a nice divorce settlement. I told her I'd fight her and I offered her some quick and easy money to forget the whole thing. She took it and left."

"What if she did love him?"

"Would she have taken the money if she loved him?"

Audra came back with a towel full of ice. She gave it to Jarrod, who thanked her and put it against the left side of his face, where all the damage was.

"What made you think she didn't love him?" Victoria asked, more calm now, understanding now.

Audra, however, now looked surprised, having missed the rest of the conversation. Jarrod glanced at her before he said, "Think back, Mother. Don't you remember the look on her face whenever he kissed her cheek? Did you ever see her reach for his hand? He always reached for hers, and she never held very tightly to his when he did. She was stiff as a board around him, but not around any of the rest of us, because we didn't try to touch her. She never wanted him to touch her."

Audra sat down, saying, "I was too young to understand. She said she loved him."

"She lied," Jarrod said. "Nick was young and in love and trying to cope with Father's death and his new responsibilities running this ranch. He had no way of knowing she was lying."

"You weren't much older," Victoria said.

"But I'd been around a lot of liars, and I had come to know what one was like," Jarrod said, and running through his mind was his own experience during the war with a woman who said she loved him but wanted something else. He let it go. "Between the army and the district attorney's office, I had learned to have a pretty good idea of when I was being lied to."

They suddenly heard Nick's spurs jingling, coming in from the library. The women looked up at him. Jarrod gave him a glance but then shut his right eye against the inability to see out of his left eye. It had swollen completely shut, very fast, and he was beginning to be miserable.

"Do you mind if I have a word with Jarrod in private?" Nick asked quietly.

Victoria and Audra got up and went off to the library, where they knew Heath was. They both knew something Heath had said had calmed Nick down. They thought maybe they could find out more about this mess if they talked to Heath.

Nick hesitated, knowing what he wanted to say but not knowing how to say it. "How's the face?" he asked.

Jarrod took the ice away and showed him the swollen black eye and the split lip.

"I'm sorry," Nick said. "I shouldn't have hit you."

"Forget it, Nick," Jarrod said, putting the ice back onto his face. "We managed to put it off for six years, at least."

"You should have told me back then," Nick said, quietly. "You should have told me what you did and why you did it."

Jarrod shook his head. "Nick, you were 22 years old and responsible for an empire. How could I tell you what she was doing to you when you were trying to cope with all that and when you were in love with her?"

Nick thought it out. "She'd have married me and then divorced me for a big settlement, wouldn't she?"

Jarrod nodded. "That's what she had in mind, but when she knew I'd fight her and it would be hard and ugly, and when I gave her easy money to give the idea up – "

"I get it, Jarrod, I get it," Nick said. "I was a lot more naïve than you were then – I get that too."

"We had different lives, Nick," Jarrod said. "I had been trained to spot a liar. And I wasn't in love with her."

"I really was, you know."

"I know," Jarrod said. "And if I had to do it again, I'd talk to you about it and let you make your own decision about her instead of paying her off. But I was feeling my way after Father's death just as much as you were. I wasn't any good at being Pappy. I just needed to get rid of her, fast. I didn't want to see you hurt any more than you had to be."

"She was the first girl I was really, truly in love with."

Jarrod remembered his first real, true love, too, and how badly it had ended up. He almost told Nick about it, but he decided not to. It wouldn't make him feel any better. "I know, Nick," he ended up saying. Then he started to get up.

He was sore all over now, from tensing up when Nick hit him as well as from the damage from Nick's fist. Nick took hold of him and steadied him. "You owe Heath a thank you," Nick said.

"Heath?" Jarrod asked. "Why?"

"He talked sense into me. He's getting good at that."

Jarrod smiled a little. "With you, he's getting a lot of practice."

Nick shrugged.

Jarrod started for the stairs. "I'm gonna clean up and lie down for a while. You still hit harder than an army mule kicks."

XXXXXXXX

Jarrod could only look at himself in the mirror through one eye, but he still didn't like what he saw. He'd had black eyes before, swollen shut before. He never liked them, especially when Nick gave them to him. This wasn't the first. And he still felt like dirt about all this.

A knock on the door made him think Nick had come to check on him again. "Come in," he said, and was surprised when his mother came in the door.

She took one look at him and said, "Oh, that's beautiful."

"Isn't it, though?" he said. "My lip has gone down, at least. This is going to take a while longer."

"I'm glad you just let him hit you, though," Victoria said. "I think it took some of the sting out of everything for him."

"And I earned it," Jarrod said. Then he kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry, Mother. This too shall pass."

"Will it?" she asked. She looked firmly at him. "I am left with the distinct impression that you still haven't told the whole story."

His heart sank. He should have known that she would read him more completely than anyone else. He wondered what to say and just said, "What more do you want to know?"

"Whatever it is you're holding back," Victoria said. "All of it. You wouldn't have paid Carol off six years ago just because you suspected she was lying to Nick about her feelings. There had to be more. What is it?"

Jarrod sighed. "You're right. There was more I never told Nick and I never intend to, and I have to be sure you really want to know."

"It's bad."

"Yes, it's bad."

"What is it?"

Jarrod took a deep breath. "I found out she was prostituting herself. Even while she was seeing Nick, she was selling herself to make a living."

Victoria swallowed. "When did you find that out?"

"Right after he told me he was thinking of asking her to marry him. I had always felt uneasy about her. I asked some of the right people in Stockton, people I knew would know about her and would tell me the truth. People I had something on. Being an assistant district attorney gave me a lot of contacts and a lot of ammunition to use when I needed it."

"And that's why you really gave her money to leave," Victoria said.

Jarrod nodded. "But how do you tell your 22-year-old brother that the girl he loves and wants to marry is a prostitute? I couldn't do it. I just paid her off and kept my mouth shut."

Victoria hung her head. She didn't know what to say.

"Maybe it wasn't the best thing I could have done, but I was still trying to figure out how to be more of a father to this bunch," Jarrod said. "I wasn't even sure I was good at being a big brother. I did what I thought was best at the time."

Victoria put her arms around him. "And you've carried this with you for six years."

"It wasn't a heavy burden until she showed up here," Jarrod said. "I really thought we'd never see her again."

"Why are you representing her, Jarrod? Really?"

"Because she's innocent - and because if I didn't, she might tell you and Nick that I paid her off six years ago. We had each other in a bind. If you tell on me, I'll tell on you – like children, only the stakes and the lies were bigger. I'm sorry, Mother. I just didn't want to see Nick get hurt."

"Well, I thank you for that, but I think it's time you tell Nick the whole truth. Even that she was a prostitute."

"He doesn't have to," Nick's voice came from the open door. He stepped into the room. "I heard you."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Jarrod sighed. "Nick, I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do."

Nick came closer. "Maybe when I was 22, it was right not to tell me. But not now. You should have told me when you told me you paid her."

"I'm sorry," Jarrod said. "You're right. I should have told you. I hope you don't want to slug me again."

Nick just glared. "Is there anything else I need to know? And don't lie to me anymore, Jarrod. I'm trusting you not to lie to me."

"There's nothing more," Jarrod said.

Nick turned and went out the door. Victoria took off after him, leaving Jarrod to feel weak-kneed and needing to lie down on his bed. He stared at the ceiling through one eye and regretted every move he ever made where Carol Keenan was concerned, because he'd done everything – every single thing – wrong.

Victoria tried to catch up with Nick in the hall, but he was far bigger than she was and could move twice as far in one stride. "Nick!" she called, trying to stop him.

In the living room, Heath and Audra had been talking about things, and when they heard Nick's spurs stomping and Victoria's voice calling, they hurried into the foyer. Heath headed Nick off and got an ugly glare for his efforts. "Get out of my way, Heath and get out of it now," Nick said.

Heath knew he was serious, and he didn't want to end up like Jarrod. He stepped aside. "Where are you going? What's wrong?"

Nick looked at every one of them. "I'm going to town to talk to Carol and find out if all this is true."

"I'll go with you," Heath said.

"You will not," Nick ordered him. "You will stay right here, and if you follow me, I'll give you a black eye of your own."

Nick strode out the front door. Heath didn't know what to do now. The women looked distraught and he had to do something, because Nick wasn't thinking about them and their feelings. None of this was easy on them, either. "What happened up there?" Heath asked Victoria softly.

Victoria didn't even want to say it but her children were adults and there was trouble in the family. This family had always faced trouble together, one way or another. Heath was about to get a big lesson in that. "Jarrod told me that the real reason he paid Carol off six years ago was because he had found out she was a prostitute."

Audra gasped and Heath moaned. "And he hadn't told Nick that," Heath said.

Victoria shook her head. "Nick overheard us. Heath, please go after him."

"Mother, he can't hurt the woman even if he was inclined to, because she's in jail," Heath said. "And I don't think he's inclined to. I think we best let him go and work this out on his own."

"Heath, you don't know how he gets when he gets mad."

Heath glanced upstairs, toward Jarrod. "Oh, I think I do. Big brother is laid out up there, and if you remember, Nick bashed me in pretty good when I got here, too. But he won't hit a woman, especially when there are bars in the way."

"But if he goes drinking," Victoria said.

"Why don't we give him a couple hours? If he's not back by then, I'll go in after him and see if he's in trouble," Heath said. "And I bet he won't be. I bet he'll sort it out while he rides it out."

Heath tried a smile, but it was only Audra who seemed to ease up. She rubbed her mother's arm. "Heath's right. Nick will come home and maybe huff and puff around for a few hours, but he'll deal with this."

Victoria could only say, "I hope you're right."

XXXXXX

Nick rode fast into town – at first. He was so angry with Jarrod that he was afraid to open his mouth and talk to anyone for fear he'd fly into a rage. So he took it out on Coco, until the breeze started to cool him off and he realized that riding his favorite horse to death was no way to handle this. He slowed down, and he calmed down, though he wasn't sure the calm would last once he got into town and saw her again. But he knew he'd at least have to look calm or the sheriff would not let him in to see Carol.

And that was what he needed more than anything now – to see Carol and to put this all to rest. Not because he didn't believe what Jarrod said about her. He did believe it. After calming down and thinking about it, he knew Jarrod would never have told anyone, especially their mother, that Carol was a prostitute if he didn't know it was true, and then not until he was backed into a corner. A lot of the other things Jarrod said made sense too. Six years ago, Tom Barkley had just died. Nick and Jarrod were both feeling their way through their new roles in the family. They were bound to make mistakes.

Nick realized that Carol Keenan had been his biggest mistake back then. As he rode slowly into town, he admitted it to himself. He was lost when his father died. He was 22 but still a boy in a way because he had been working under his father's tutelage. And suddenly, overnight, he was in charge of one of the biggest ranches around. He remembered feeling like he had to grow up, instantly, and be a man in every sense of the word. He remembered feeling empowered and weakened at the same time, and he remembered that there were certain things that were expected of a man, things he had to do to be accepted into the community as head of an enterprise like the Barkley ranch. He remembered that one of those things was that he had to have a wife.

Nick shook his head as he dismounted in front of the sheriff's office. Of course he'd been wrong about a lot of things six years ago. He was scrambling too hard and moving too fast, and the biggest mistake he had made back then was Carol Keenan. He leaned against his horse for a moment. Coco huffed at him. "Sorry, old friend," Nick said and patted him on the neck. "I mistreated you tonight. Forgive me."

Coco huffed again, kind of a "yeah, all right," kind of huff. Nick gave him another pat and went into the sheriff's office.

The sheriff wasn't there, but his deputy was. "Oh, hi, Nick," Henry said. "What brings you to town?"

"I'd like to see your prisoner," Nick said.

Henry was young and had no idea what had gone on with Nick and Carol earlier in the day, much less six years ago. "Sure," he said and let Nick into the cell block.

Carol was lying on the cot. She jumped a little when Henry closed the cell block door. She had been asleep. She saw Nick and sat up, surprised. "Nick! What are you doing here?"

Nick was sure he'd be angry again by the time he got in here, but the anger had faded. Pity was beginning to creep in. "Carol," he said, "Jarrod told me some things today, things I need to hear from you about, whether they're true or not."

Carol kept away from the bars, unsure of Nick's intentions despite the fact that his voice was not angry. "What things?"

Nick said, "Jarrod told me you left six years ago because he paid you to."

Carol hesitated, waiting for him to say more, but he left it there. "That's true," she said in a small voice.

"He said you were out to marry me for money and that you intended to divorce me and get a settlement," Nick said.

Carol hesitated some more. She took a deep breath, but didn't say anything.

Nick went on. "Jarrod said that the whole time we were together, you were hooking to make money. He said you were a prostitute."

Now she was stuck. She hung her head, then looked off to the side, then looked up at Nick. "He's right. He found out and told me I could take some of his money and leave you alone, or he would fight with everything in him to keep me from marrying you."

Nick nodded a little bit. Then he finally asked, "Did you ever love me? At any time, did you love me?"

"I liked you," Carol said. "But no, I never loved you."

Nick had heard all he needed to hear. He nodded, said, "Good-bye, Carol," and went out the door.

As he went out into the street, Nick thought about going over to Harry's for a drink before he went home, but he decided against it. He didn't need liquor right now. He needed to think clearly, not so much about Carol and what happened six years ago, but about what would happen now, at home, between him and Jarrod. He knew he was still mad as hell that Jarrod hadn't told him everything – back then or now – but then there was what Carol had said just now. Six years ago Jarrod had found out what she really was and had told her "he would fight with everything in him" to keep her from marrying Nick. Jarrod had said that himself, but somehow hearing Carol say it sealed the lid on it. Jarrod had just been trying to have his back.

Nick mounted up. Somehow, he had to reconcile a brother who would deceive him the way Jarrod had, with the brother who would fight with everything in him to keep him from being hurt the way Carol would have hurt him. Somehow he had to do that before he got home.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Dinner at the Barkley house was very quiet. Jarrod ate, but wasn't feeling all that well, and he had virtually nothing to say. Heath and Audra tried some quiet chit-chat, but it was just between the two of them. It was so quiet they could all hear the clock in the hall ticking away. Ticking the minutes and then the hours away and Nick still wasn't home.

"I think you'd better go after him," Victoria said quietly to Heath as they all left the table.

Jarrod heard her and was half tempted to suggest he do it himself, but he knew he had no business being on a horse tonight. He sat down in his thinking chair in the living room, declined a brandy and just asked for Silas to bring some coffee.

Heath gave a nod to Victoria, grabbed his gun and hat and went out the door. It was dark outside, but the stable yard was still lit from the lanterns inside the stable and the lights from the house. Heath was about to saddle his horse when he heard a horse coming into the yard outside. In a moment, Nick was leading Coco inside.

"I was just about to come after you," Heath said. "You been drinking?"

"No," Nick said. "Just took it slow coming home."

"Did you talk to her?"

Nick began to unsaddle his horse. "Yeah, I talked to her."

"Wanna talk about it?"

Nick paused before he lifted the saddle off Coco's back. "Did Mother tell you what I overheard before I left?"

"Yeah," Heath said.

"Well, it was true," Nick said. "Everything Jarrod said was true. Everything he knew six years ago that he didn't tell me about was true."

Heath felt almost heartbroken for the man. He thought back to the first time he was really, honestly in love. She was out of the picture now, gone somewhere he didn't know. He imagined how he would feel to find out she had been a prostitute or something like that. "I'm sorry, Nick," was all Heath could think to say.

"I rode to town madder than hell at him, for not telling me then and for not telling me now," Nick said. "I was ready to bust him in the other eye and blind him for a week. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right about something else he said. I was feeling my way through growing up back then. Father had just died. I was in charge of this place all on my own, and I was trying to figure it out. And I was making mistakes. Carol was a mistake. And maybe Jarrod made a mistake back then in not telling me what was going on – maybe he made a bigger one today when he still didn't tell me she was a prostitute and I had to overhear it when he told Mother – but Carol said something. She said Jarrod told her if she didn't take his money and leave six years ago, he would fight with everything in him to keep her from marrying me."

Nick grew silent. Heath said, "He had your back."

"He had my back," Nick said. "And he was doing what he thought he had to do to help me figure out who this 22-year-old kid was and how he was going to run an empire. I thought about that and thought about it and came home slow because I wanted to come to terms with it before I saw him and hit him and put that other eye out. I don't want to fight with him anymore. How does his eye look?"

"Terrible," Heath said. "Swollen shut real good. He won't be looking out of that eye for a couple days."

Nick sighed and lifted the saddle away from Coco. "I hate it when I have to apologize."

Heath chuckled a little. "I think he feels more like he has to apologize to you. He didn't say a word all through dinner."

Nick took the saddle blanket off Coco's back. "Well, we gotta make it up to one another somehow, I guess."

"Why don't you let me take care of Coco and you go talk to him?" Heath suggested.

Nick gave him a pat on the arm. "Thanks," he said and headed into the house.

When Nick went inside, Victoria and Audra, both on the settee, looked up, but Jarrod in his thinking chair did not. Nick could see he had a cup of coffee in his hand. He couldn't see that Jarrod had both eyes closed. Nick took his hat and gunbelt off and left them in the foyer, then went to the refreshment table and poured himself a whiskey. That was when he turned around and saw the state of his older brother's left eye – swollen shut, black and blue straight down into his cheekbone. Jarrod had his good eye shut, too. It was probably too much effort to keep one eye open.

"I'm sorry about the eye, big brother," Nick said.

Jarrod opened that one good eye. "I'm sorry about the rest of it. I should have told you."

Nick nodded. "Yeah, you should have, but I understand why you didn't tell me back then, and I can forgive you for not telling me today. I understand you were trying to look out for me."

"Even if I did it in a clumsy way?"

"Maybe especially because you did it in a clumsy way. It's good to know that big brother makes mistakes, too. But it's better to know he's looking out for me."

"Are we all right now?" Jarrod asked.

"Yeah," Nick said. "I talked to Carol. You and me, we're all right."

That was all they said about it.

"Where's Heath?" Audra asked when no one spoke.

"Out taking care of Coco for me," Nick said. "He's a pretty good kid, that Heath. He listens a lot better than I do."

Victoria smiled. "He is a patient man." She liked that about him. Maybe some of it would rub off on Nick.

Audra thought of something. "What are we going to do with all those papers of President Grant's he found?"

"I forgot all about those," Jarrod said.

"I think," Nick said, "that once Jarrod can see out of both eyes again, we all gather around the fireplace and burn them, one by one, until they're all gone. Put this whole sad affair to the torch."

"Not a bad idea," Audra said.

Jarrod knew he still had to do something for his client, Carol Keenan Bernard, but he didn't mention that for now. That could wait until tomorrow. This day had been hellacious enough, and Nick's idea to burn the papers had been a good one. Very symbolic.

"Coffee, Nick?" Victoria asked, pouring a cup and handing it out to him.

Nick looked at the bit of whiskey in his glass. He took the cup of coffee from his mother, poured the remainder of his whiskey into the cup with it, and set the whiskey glass aside. He sat down in the empty chair next to Jarrod's with a sigh.

Epilogue

It only took a couple days for Markle, the federal prosecutor in Sacramento, to receive the sheriff's report on Carol Keenan Bernard and review it. Jarrod got word from Pinkerton that they hadn't found anywhere that she was wanted for anything. Her marriage to the man named Jerome Bernard was legitimate and he had died falling off a ladder a year earlier. So, it was all in the federals' lap now. Jarrod exchanged a few telegrams with Markle, and it wasn't long before Markle said the case would not be prosecuted. Carol had given the little bit of information she had about the man who gave her the bad money to Jarrod, who passed it on. The federals decided it just wasn't worth it to prosecute Carol.

Carol had to give up her horse, though, in payment for her time in the Stockton jail. When she was released, Jarrod was there – his eye still discolored but not swollen shut anymore – to escort her to the train station and make sure she left town. It almost seemed like déjà vu. He had escorted her out of town six years ago, too, via the train.

He tried not to sound bitter about it this time, but as he put her on the train, he said, "This time, Carol, make sure you don't come back to Stockton."

She nodded. "Thanks for getting me off."

"I do hope the best for you. If you can find another man like your husband, you'll be better off for it."

She smiled a little. "Six years ago, I didn't recognize a good man when I found him. When I met and married my husband, I did understand what was really good and decent. I got lost after I lost him. But maybe I can get found again now. Please tell Nick – well, you know."

Jarrod nodded as the train began to pull away. "I know," he said.

He watched Carol climb the stairs and go into the car there, and he watched until the train went around the bend and was gone. He gave a sigh. Maybe this time it would really all be over.

He left the platform to go back to his office – but there was Nick, in the street, watching. He had seen Jarrod put Carol on the train. Jarrod wasn't really surprised to see Nick standing there. It surprised him a little that Nick hadn't asked for some last time with her, but then he thought he shouldn't have been surprised. There really wasn't much of anything more to say.

"Been standing there long?" Jarrod asked him.

"Long enough," Nick said. "Did she pay you?"

Jarrod chuckled. "With good money. Let me buy you lunch – on Carol."

Nick nodded, and they headed for the Stockton House together.

The End


End file.
